Changes v2
by BadWritingAnon
Summary: Three men connected through tragedy share a drink, as someone arrives who might have a solution. [Wrote this a while ago, finished a couple of paragraphs finishing the chapter 1. Posting this on here so that it at least doesn't die a forgotten death on my hard drive. Reuploaded from 30 minutes ago and then 10 minutes ago due to editing mistakes.]
1. Chapter 1

(If you've noticed this story being posted three times, FF has some odd font limit where it doesn't recognise underscores, so when I try and seperate my change in character perception it doesn't WORK. Only figured this out the third time and decided upon a row of x's)

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It was a late evening in November, the autumn leaves now succumbing to the colder season creeping it's way into view.

The man who stood in front of two gravestones, who had stood there last year, and the years before that, sighed heavily, kicking his feet back into action as the cold had started seeping in. He was always the first here, he had made a point of it over the past years. He had complained when the commander had joined what was once a solo annual venture, but with the additional member joining in his misery as of two years ago, he had come here three hours earlier out of spite.

It wasn't the worst thing, he reflected, settling his hands into his jacket pockets. A bit of time alone here was the thing he cherished, to mourn silently, away from the troubles of the world. Leaning over, he inspected the graves, running his hand alongside the handiwork. They had held up well considering it had been over fifty years, but time was starting to take its toll on the marble, some of the writing starting to become illegible as the font grew smaller on the lower half.

He placed his hand on the grave to kneel down, assorting some of the flowers. The commander had his delivered once a week on the way to work, which was easy enough for him, he worked within the city and it was on his way. To make up for his more annual gift, he had placed some expensive cigars on his grandfather's grave and a single lily on his second cousin's. They'd have appreciated it, he was sure enough.

An engine quietly hummed around the corner and slowed to a halt, right outside the gates of the cemetery. He used the grave again to stand up, brushing the dirt off his trousers as he got upright. The commander had arrived to end his solitude out here, or at least, among the living.

The car's door slid open and the commander got out of the car slowly, making sure not to ruffle his suit or the flowers he was carrying. The man of advanced years waved to it's still seated occupant who nodded and drove away from the scene, leaving the guy on his own to enter.

He waited until the man reached the graves and replaced his flowers before addressing him.

"What time do you call this?"

The commander just shook his head, also using the grave to reach a standing position. They were both getting old, but neither of them were going to admit it, not at their age.

"Some of us have jobs, Ivo." replied the man, dusting the dirt off his trousers. "Damn it, these take forever to clean."

Abraham gave up and walked over to Eggman's side, removing his cap in the process. They stood in silence for some time as the slight breeze ruffled the autumn debris around their feet. Eggman waited for Abraham to finish his moment, in a rare sign of mutual respect between the two.

"52 years huh?" said Abraham quietly, breaking the silence.

"Who'da thunk it."

"Where's the time going, Ivo?"

Eggman looked down at his nose, already starting to gather wrinkles, and his stomach that protruded out from over his belt.

"Not a damn clue" he said, mostly to himself. The years weren't being kind, that was for damn sure. Even Abraham's once muscular physique was showing the passage of time, his grey hair contrasting heavily across his dark skin, his once strong features on his face now showing time's cruel journey wreck their havoc.

"You know what the worst thing is?" said Abe, reaching into his pocket.

"What?"

"That moody bastard's going to outlive the both of us."

"Where is he anyway?" asked Eggman, looking around the area.

"Hell if I know."

Abraham finally procured his cigarettes, offering one to Eggman.

"No thanks." said Eggman, waving his hand dismissively at him. "You shouldn't either, not at your age."

The commander shrugged and lit his own instead.

"Not a day over twenty-one." the commander said, smoke coming out of his tired mouth.

"Same."

They two self-proclaimed young men stood there in silence some more.

"Busy at work?" Eggman asked.

"You know for a fact it is."

"Hey c'mon, it can't all be me."

"Your stupid amusement park is taking ages to dismantle. What the hell were you thinking building that?"

"You're doing what?!"

"Ivo, come on, you haven't even been there in years."

"That was my masterpiece though, I worked hard on it!"

"Doctor, the clouds and the water around it have turned purple, you're laying waste to the area, and best of all, your mug is covering the goddamn entrance, of course we have to do something."

"Of course it would be you guys to ruin a Robotnik dream."

Abraham spun around to face Eggman accusingly.

"And what in the hell is that supposed to mean?" asked the commander, advancing on the doctor.

"You know what it means." said Eggman, standing up to his full height.

"I'm working my best to stop the kind of actions that caused that, don't you fucking dar-"

A bright green flash blinded the both of them, causing the two to stagger backwards. Eggman lowered his hand from his eyes, trying to get his vision back. Blurred, but coming into focus, stood their third companion.

"Every damn year." said the black hedgehog.

Shadow pushed through the middle of them and laid his flowers to rest as both men behind him looked down embarrassed. There was too much history there to not comment on, but Eggman felt bad about it coming up, especially today.

"Cigars, doctor?" asked Shadow, inspecting the case. Eggman looked up to see Shadow's questioning stare.

"As good a present as any."

Shadow shrugged, brushing dirt off his shoes as he stood up and joined the two men.

They all put their head down in silence. Eggman and Abe both knew not to say a word, for all their animosity towards each other, they respected each others' loss. For Eggman, it was family, for Abraham, it was his best friend. What both men had over Shadow was fifty years time to reflect on it. For the young black hedgehog, it was less than three years ago, and neither man wanted to stumble into that.

"I can't believe it's sunny today." said Shadow, after the lengthy pause. Eggman looked up, noting the blue skies.

"Statistically, it can't rain every fourteenth of November." said Abraham.

"If you would just let me build the damn machine I could give it a go-" interjected Eggman, but stopped at Shadow's raised hand. He slumped his shoulders sulkily.

"Maria would have liked it at least." said the hedgehog morosely, and knelt down at the grave. Eggman patted the hedgehog on the shoulder before walking off to give him some space.

The rest of the graveyard was in need of upkeep, that was for certain. As Abraham mentioned, Eggman had the free time. Maybe he'd send some robots in, sort the place out a bit. He kicked a clump of earth that had fallen on the path with his shoe. If it was up to him, Maria and Gerald would have monolithic gravestones, far away from the preying eyes of everyone else. But this was strictly in the will of Gerald, and Abraham had made sure to follow it to the letter once he got into such a place in G.U.N. to do so.

He shook his head angrily. How could he work for them? True, Abe had reformed the place, even if there were still major problems within, he had been doing his best. Abe had offered him a position once, a long time ago now.

He had refused on principle, and the gap between the men had widened since then, especially as their work brought them against each other. Well, he thought, he said work. The government labeled his activities as "A danger to society" and "A threat to the people" and "Oh god everything awful somebody do something." and to top it all off, Gerald was on their side now.

He kicked the clump of earth again, this time with force, causing it to fly over the gates that surrounded the graves.

"Ivo, come over here."

Eggman peered his head around to see Shadow and Abraham standing aside from the graves, walking over to him on the path. He met them halfway.

"What's up?"

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to join us for a drink." said Abraham.

"You actually want me to go drinking with you?"

"Well, only a couple. It might be nice to reminisce about things in a place..." He gestured around the graves "...well, a bit less sombre."

"And he's coming too?"

They both looked at Shadow, who turned his head back from Maria's gravestone.

"What?"

"You're coming to the pub?"

Shadow focused his vision on the Doctor, his wandering eyes becoming fixed on Eggman.

"I've never really talked about Maria to anyone." said Shadow, with a trace of uncertainty in his normally monotone voice.

"Good a time as any to start." said Abraham, clapping his hands together. "Plus, it's getting cold out here." he rubbed his hands together and blew on them, causing hot air to whistle over his hands.

Eggman shook his head while he thought. Like Shadow, he never talked about Gerald or his grandaughter, no-one understood what he went through, apart from the two stood in front of him now. It wouldn't be so bad to knock back a few and actually talk about the skeletons in their closets.

On the other hand, he hated these two on every other day of the year other than this one.

Stamping his feet, he made up his mind. It was cold.

"I guess I could have a few." he said defeatedly, walking alongside them.

"Know anywhere good around here?" asked the commander, looking at both Eggman and Shadow inquisitively.

"Both the Doctor and I can't just ditch the uniform Commander, we tend to get chased out of most places." replied Shadow, exchanging looks with Eggman. "After a while, you stop looking for good places to go."

"Well that's me screwed, I don't go out as much as I used to."

They got to the gates and walked through, looking back as they were shutting the doors on their annual mourning. Shadow stared at the gravestones for some time before speaking.

"Sayanara, Maria."

The commander put his cap back on and nodded it towards both graves, and walked with Shadow away from the gates, putting his hands into his pockets once more.

Eggman waited for a while until the steps of the commanders boots quietened into the distance, until the noise of Shadow's shoes had petered out.

"See you next year. Enjoy the cigars."

He nodded a small nod to the face of Maria's headstone too, and then turned away, starting to walk briskly to catch the others up. The last autumn leaf fell, landing directly onto the display the three last occupants had left, and laid there to gather frost.

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As far as pubs went this wasn't too bad, thought Abraham Tower, looking around the joint. It was cosy, and the clientele seemed to be a couple of regulars, who gave them glazed looks as they went past. A couple of stares were given to his companions, with a brief look of recollection on their faces. Whether it was due to the drink or just a general sense of not being arsed, they left them alone.

It was certainly better than the first two pubs they had gone into, where they were recognised almost instantly. Well, Eggman and Shadow in any case. Shadow's unfortunate run-in with the aliens that invaded the planet marked him down as a dangerous individual, which was part of the reason he was assigned to the more covert operations within his team.

Eggman there was no helping. He didn't even try to hide himself, and upon being recognised would instantly get loudly defensive, ruining any chance of going incognito. It was the moustache, really. Abraham'd be lying if he said he wasn't impressed by it, the thing protruded several inches from his face in either direction, carefully maintained by the Doctor himself every morning, which he knew for a fact. Abraham's attempt at facial hair was laughable, and as such he had remained clean shaven for the duration of his career.

They sat down by a vacant table, resting their jackets on the back of their chairs.

"What do you guys want to drink?" said Eggman, rifling through his wallet.

"You paying?"

"Mmhmm"

Abraham glared at Eggman, who raised an eyebrow at the commander.

"Where'd you get the money, Ivo?" he asked.

Eggman pouted.

"You know I have many legal businesses. Got this from a bulk-load of security robots, if you have to know."

"Who the hell would order security robots from you?"

Eggman pulled out a receipt from his wallet, and peered at it, a small little smile on his lips as he read through.

"A … Sergeant Jones, defence manager.." he glanced over at Abraham with a grin on his face. "...of the Guardian Unit of Nations. Oh wait, Abe, isn't that where you work? Funny thing that."

"I'm in stitches." said Abraham through gritted teeth, his frown lines burrowing into his forehead. He shook his head. This wasn't the time for this, and there would be an ample opportunity for this tomorrow anyway, he was sure. Preferably over a coffee, Sergeant Jones, and the business end of a heavy bat.

"I'll just get you a gin, Abe" Eggman said, as he put his wallet away, card now in hand. "What can I get you, Shadow?"

"I don't drink." said Shadow, who - cross-armed and the permanent frown on his face - had returned to his more heavily reserved persona, not the lost lad he was back at the graveyard.

"We're in this together" Abraham said, patting him on the back. "Get him Vodka, was Gerald's favourite."

Shadow and Eggman looked at the commander.

"How do you know that?"

Abraham winced. He'd walked right into this one, and he hadn't the imagination to lie.

"I erm...dug up the inventory list when I was investigating the, ahem... incident."

The awkward silence hung around the table for a while, only letting in the background noise of the pub, the sound of cue on ball, the Air-Gear Grand Prix's commentator's loud piercing voice only coming through as a muffled blare into the personal mist around the three men.

Coughing, Eggman stood up.

"I'll go get those drinks."

"I can pay some if you want Ivo..." Abraham started, but stopped as Eggman put his hand up dismissively, walking past him without glancing back.

Abraham shut his eyes and sighed. It had been 30 years since he joined GUN and the resentment had lasted still. Instinctively, he reached inside his pocket for his cigarettes. The doctor was right, they weren't good for him, but they had all had to cope in their own way. They had to. Eggman had rebelled against the government, taking on schemes more insane and more dangerous than the last in order to one up them. He'd probably have succeeded without that blue hedgehog stopping him.

And Shadow… well. He put himself into his work. Both of them working for the same government once responsible for their miserable existence now.

He flicked a cigarette out of the pouch and started to find his lighter. Maybe the lunatic was right. Not just about the fags, slowly adding more trouble to the cough that kept him and his wife up most nights. What had he actually changed since moving with G.U.N.? He had spent most of it tracking down the wrong guy in the first place, the hedgehog who was sat next to him looking broodily at some coasters.

"You can't smoke indoors Commander."

Abraham jolted to his senses, realising that Shadow was speaking to him, a coaster twirling around in his hand.

"I… I knew that."

"You were going to light it."

"You can't prove it."

"Turn your lighter off then."

Embarassed, Abraham shook his lighter shut, the flame extinguishing.

"Shadow?" asked Abraham.

"Yes?"

He hesitated, but pushed through.

"Am I a good Commander?"

"I can answer that!" came Eggman's voice behind him.

Rolling his eyes, he thanked the Doctor for the drinks and watched as the much more cheerful man than had left the table sat down opposite him.

"Crack team of specialised units Shadow, and this guy got you confused for Sonic. Chased you all around the city, had photo evidence, and still got the wrong guy!" Eggman's laugh gained a couple of looks from the bars' patrons. "Tell me Commander, how did you manage to capture the bastard anyway?"

"He was helping us with our enquiries before he got bored and knocked out our pilot."

"Oh christ, how is Rob doing anyway?"

"A lot better, thanks. His doctor thinks he'll even be able to fly a plane again in the next couple of years."

"Even without his leg?"

"Well, we have planes that can accommodate that, you'd be surprised."

"Pfft" Eggman snorted, beer coming out of his nose and dripping onto his moustache. "My EggMobile could be driven with no hands. Hell, a child could ride it." He wiped his lengthy moustache with his sleeve, drenching his jacket. "Well, I say could. Can."

"How many children you tested it with?"

"Well…, I'm not going to put myself in danger, no-one questions it when you take it to a science fair. Helps that I painted your logo on it Abe."

"Gee, thanks Ivo."

Abraham sat back, and drank a hearty gulp of gin, before coughing and spluttering it back onto the table.

"Christ Ivo, you didn't half buy the good stuff."

"Self-employment is wonderful. How's your drink anyway, Shadow?"

Abraham turned around to see the black hedgehog's drink untouched, with Shadow glaring at the both of them. He didn't think there was any malice in there, it just happened to be his natural face. That being said, he wasn't going to have Shadow be sober during this. As much as he hated Eggman and his once long vendetta against Shadow, these guys may as well be family.

"Shadow… have you ever actually drank anything before?"

The lengthy pause gave Eggman and Abe enough time to exchange a concerned look.

"Come on Shadow, this is an order. Your mission is to down your drink."

Eggman's eyebrow raised, staring at the commander.

"Now that was just pathetic Abe, how the hell was that going t-"

"Finished, Commander."

The two men broke the gaze they shared and slowly focused on Shadow, and then on his empty glass.

"Jesus Christ Shadow, that was full."

"Yes. And?"

Eggman sat back and whistled.

"And you had doubts on whether you were a good commander."

Laughing, Abe stood up, grabbing Shadow's glass from the table.

"I'll get him some more."

"On your wage?" replied Eggman.

"Pfft, this one can go on the government tab."

Shadow's stare pierced through both men, but it was noticable how his eyes dilated every so often.

"Was that a joke Commander?" asked Shadow.

"You can find out later. You want the same?"

Shadow nodded slowly.

"I'll come with you." said Eggman, standing up slowly. "Not actually sure what I want this time around, they have some good local stuff in here from what it looks like on the menu."

"You haven't finished yours yet Doctor."

Eggman put his hand on the hedgehog's back and gave it a hearty whack.

"Shadow, if someone else if paying for your pint, you accept it, no matter how many pints behind you are. Lesson number one."

They left Shadow to his own devices and got to the bar, the local barkeep rinsing down the glasses on the opposite side.

Abraham glanced at the selection on offer.

"Don't really see these brews of yours Ivo." he said, looking around to see Eggman leaning on the bar, focused on him.

"Is Shadow alright?" asked Eggman.

"Huh?"

"I know he's usually quiet and brooding and edgy, it's kind of his thing." Eggman looked around, watching Shadow stare out of the window. "But he usually has more pep in him than this."

"What do you want pal?" said the gristled voice of the barkeep.

"Oh, sorry, just a gin, a vodka, and … what do you want Ivo?"

"Get me a vodka too actually, gonna have to try and keep up with that mad bastard."

"And a vodka please."

"Right." finished the barkeep, walking back to grab some more glasses. Abe turned back to watch Shadow with Eggman.

"Y'know," started Abraham, absent-mindlessly spinning a coaster in his hands, "Every year he's been going to the graves, I've never actually seen where he goes after. This is the first time he's actually decided to come with us instead. I think he's a bit out of his depth, to be honest with you."

"What, broody McCoolGuy over there is lost in a pub?"

"He'll go out with the guys while he's in work, but the guy's got no social life outside of Rouge and Omega, and they're not exactly the most social people themselves."

"Rouge isn't social?"

"You'd be surprised. Puts up a confident front, and then spends the weekends on the sofa watching Mobius Actually on repeat."

"I like that film." admitted Eggman.

"Same, actually."

They collected their drinks, but before he reached the table, Eggman's surprisingly strong arms pulled him back to speak to him.

"I know I fight you from time to time, but I don't want to be responsible for his medical bill. At least, not tonight. Is he going to be alright?"

"Yeah, should be." said Abraham, chuckling. "We're only having a couple of pints, we're not gonna do something stupid."

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Shadow leant back, and then stopped his head from lolling even further back, which took some considerable effort. Shaking his head, he tried to ignore the dizziness that had started to take up some of his vision.

It had been three hours since he had downed his first drink, and judging by the glasses on the table, there had had been a lot more. More worryingly, he had a feeling he had drank his fair share of them. He shook his head again, and reached for his…

His eyes focused on the pile in front of him. One of these had his last drink in it, he was sure of it. Shadow's arm raised above, and like a broken arcade claw, perused the glasses.

It had been an interesting night so far. Shadow hadn't said much, but he got to watch the Doctor and the Commander speak with each other.

It was odd, he had to admit. Three years ago… well, three years from his perspective, he had been told about Maria's friend Abe, and her cousin Ivo. He had been shown pictures, huddled in a blanket with his hot chocolate in hand, wanting to meet these guys that Maria spoke so fondly of, and now here they were, 50 years older, filling in Shadow on over half a decade of stories.

It was odd then, to find out after all this time, that they were arse-holes.

From what he could make out, Eggman and Abe had kept in contact up until they were in their mid-twenties, when Abe had joined the Guardian Unit of Nations. Considering Eggman's ambition to … he paused, thinking. Was it a theme park or global domination? A global theme park? Shadow shook his head again. It was something to do with roller-coasters in any case.

Concerning his new plan, it had put Abe and Eggman at ends, and when the reveal that GUN was behind Maria's death got out, they had stopped talking for decades. They were now in the middle of discussing that gap with each other, swaying as they did so.

Eggman was able to handle his liquor better than the commander, but his rosy cheeks and erratic hand movement's betrayed him. Abraham was trying to act more composed, but this is what sold him out more. He was too rigid, too composed. And best of all, swaying from side to side without him realising it.

Shadow's hand knocked into a glass, causing both men to pause, and Abraham to effortlessly catch it before it hit the floor.

"Pretty impressive, Commander" said Shadow, as his blurred vision came back to him slowly.

"Military training, Shadow." said Abraham, hand wavering up to his forehead in a very sloppy salute. "W-was the best in my class in almost all fields."

"Almost all?"

"Well, the doctor here, back when we … when we talked more, came to watch when I was running."

Eggman leant back, silently laughing to himself.

"What happened?" asked Shadow, ignoring the snickering from the man slowly starting to gurgle his drink in laughter.

"Your man over here, he's making a scene. I didn't mind so much, it was honestly funny at the time, although it didn't half annoy the Commander."

Eggman sat upright, holding back tears.

"Oh god, Jenkins?"

"The very same." replied Tower, turning to look at Shadow. "Before my time." He stopped to take a drink, and then quickly – choking a bit – addressed Shadow again. "But after the incident."

Shadow relaxed a bit, but remained uneasy. Abraham had overhauled GUN, making sure no remains of the old rule was left. That wasn't to say there was no corruption, but the uniforms, the data, everything to do with GUN from over 40 years ago was only accessible to the Commander. Shadow and the Commander had agreed with each other that this was a sensible thing to do, moving on required him not to see who was actually responsible. The information was there and Abraham wasn't readily going to hand it over. Most days he could deal with that. This was not one of those days.

"So anyway," said Abraham, carefully putting Shadow's glass in front of the brooding hedgehog. "Jenkins shouts Ivo down, puts him on the starting line and tells him if he wanted attention he was going to get it. He was going to do the one hundred metre dash in front of everyone, in front of the entire academy." He downed his drink before continuing. "Your man here only takes the fucking gold."

Eggman's snickering turned into a mighty laugh that echoed around the pub. Most of the local patrons had left now to go back to their wives, and from Shadow's guessing, one husband. Like the two that sat before him, the only ones left had no-one to go back to. Shadow had never felt too much likening to the local populous, but these kindred spirits got to him.

"Ivo, I had every other medal, how did your out of shape mass beat everyone?"

"Everyone?"

"Your record still stands. They don't count Shadow's, they feel it's a bit unsporting when he's got jet-boots."

"That's cause I'm in perfect shape Abe." Eggman stood up. "And that shape is oval." He missed his quarter full glass twice, and shook his head. "I'll just get another one. What do you two slow bastards want?"

"Wait… a minute."

Eggman and Abraham looked at Shadow, who had finally risen to his feet. Realising his motor skills were shot, he leant on the table with one hand.

"You may have beat the Commander, Doctor, but you do not call me ... slow."

"Pah, you think you could beat me?" said Eggman, turning around to look at Shadow, knocking over a chair in the process of stumbling around.

"I th-think I could destroy you."

"Dream on edge-boy." said Eggman, who walked over to him and patronisingly ruffled his head. "I've outran the fastest thing alive, and you're good Shadow, but you're not quite Carling."

Shadow shook his head and ruffled through his fur to undo the mess Eggman's giant hands wrought.

"Sonic? He's not even good enough to eat my dust."

"Oho, there's the cocky Shadow I once knew!" said Eggman, leaning on the table also. "How about we make it interesting?"

"What?"

"Ten thousand dollars says you can't outrun me."

"Hey, come on Ivo, he doesn't have that kind of money." said Abraham. Shadow's death-glare caught his eye, which garnered the reply of "You know I'm working on getting you that pay rise."

Shadow downed his drink, which seemed to be getting easier as the night went on. He wondered why people didn't just get drunk all the time, there seemed to be no apparent drawbacks.

"You make it sound like I've got a chance to lose money in this." said Shadow.

Abraham stood up, refused to lean on the table, and staggered back a couple of steps to ensure his face didn't meet the floor.

"Now guys, come on..." said Abraham. He paused, and gave them a hazy look, as if trying to ascertain their positions in the pub. "No need to start anything."

"The edge-hog made a challenge, what kind of man would I be if I turned him down? Outside, Shadow, we'll need the space."

Shadow followed Eggman outside, leaving Abraham to try and explain to the overenthusiastic barmaid that they would be coming back. It was freezing out here, the winter night coming in with a vengeance, as if to confront anyone who had complained about the cold winter's day. The frosty air knocked some sobriety back into him, but before he wondered if racing a middle aged man while quite drunk was a reasonable idea, Eggman had started taking strides alongside the pub's road. After some time, Abraham joined them, and was smart enough to bring his jacket along with him, which he had his weathered hands shoved into.

"He'll count it exact y'know."

Shadow looked up at the Commander, who had his eyes fixated on the man currently doing precise strides around the perimeter.

"He'll get it down to the millimetre." continued Abraham, using this opportunity to sneak in a quick cigarette by the door, using his hand to stop the late night breeze from snuffing out his light. "I've given up second guessing him on things, he genuinely is one of the best minds of our generation. I mean, you wouldn't know it, with how modest he is and all." He smirked while he took a long drag of his cigarette. "Shame really, could have been a bloody asset to G,U.N. Not that I blame him of course, but it'd be nice if he could look past the name and just see me asking for his help."

"You'd want him?"

"Shadow, that man over there was one of the few people that I would have called a friend before we… stopped talking."

"What about us?"

"You and the gang are brilliant, but you hardly ever drink, Rouge is more of a business associate, and Omega's great and all for a robot, but he gets riled up easily. Says humans are weak a lot. Tends to absolutely murder the dance floor."

"You mean that literally or -"

"I mean it was very nearly a Security-1 incident."

"Christ."

Eggman walked – unsteadily – back to the pair, smiling.

"Got the route down." said the Doctor, gesturing toward the traffic cones which stood roughly, or, Shadow corrected himself, exactly 100 metres apart. "You ready?"

"I was born ready."

"You were born in a green vat, Shadow, I assure you, that was not the case."

The three of them stumbled over to the starting line, a set of traffic cones set dead in the middle of the vacant road. What with the trouble of finding an out of the way pub to settle in, the pub they found was a little out of the way place, where not many people passed by.

Shadow leant down on one knee to assume the starting position, and after the third attempt, he managed to get himself ready without using his arms as stabilisers. Eggman walked next to him, eyes on the traffic cones ahead.

"Right..." said Abraham, standing on the pavement, a gun in one hand, and the other hand holding for dear life on a lamppost for stability. "First one to reach the end wins, play fair. You hear me, Ivo?"

"I'm hurt."

"I'm sorry Ivo, I guess that was a bit cruel of me. After all, you've never cheated, lied or done any misdeed in this world. I won't second-guess your honour again."

"I should think not."

Shadow smirked.

"On the count of three!" said the Commander, gun wavering upwards in the air, his finger on the trigger.

"One!"

Shadow leant forward, the breeze flowing through his quills, his feet getting a feel of the road.

"Two!"

Eggman clumsily stumbled forward, but corrected himself quickly.

"Three!"

The gunshot deafened Shadow but he lunged forward, the g-force pulling on all his muscles. His jet-boots kicked into overdrive, and blasted him to the end, where he drifted around to see Eggman…

Right next to him.

Eggman ruffled Shadow's hair again, laughing.

"I haven't outran Sonic in years, but you might actually be faster, edgeboy!" Eggman turned around, yelling at Abraham. "Who won?"

The Commander walked over, which took considerable time, most likely due to the fact he was having to use every lamppost he found to gain some balance back.

"Y'know..." Abraham started. He took a deep breath and leant back on another post. "The sensible thing would have been to be at the end, where I could have seen the winner."

"University of Spagonia's finest, ladies and gentlemen." said Eggman laughing, before he puked on to the pavement.

"Jesus Christ, Ivo."

"Doctor, are you okay?"

"Believe it or not, running nearly the speed of sound isn't healthy." said Eggman shortly after regaining his composure. "Not like you, eh Shadow? Lucky son of a bitch, ultimate god-damn lifeform. What I wouldn't give for immortality."

"It's a curse, Doctor."

"Pah. Get to our age and …" Eggman paused, thinking about his next sentence. "Never mind."

They all walked back to the starting traffic cones, and after a bit of confusion and yelling, Abraham stumbled back to the finish line again. Shadow leant back into his starting position, and Eggman regained some more breath back into his fat body, before assuming his own position. It didn't look right, he thought. The doctor's body was out of shape, not just in the general sense but also in a quite real sense of an anatomical fuck up. His legs, thin, and evidently, full of muscle. But to heavily contrast this, his stomach fat protruded out from his waistline. Scientists would have a field day the second Eggman went.

"How did you learn to run so fast?" asked Shadow, still staring.

Eggman shrugged, causing him to lose balance and end up on the floor, sprawled outwards and giggling to himself. Uncharacteristically, Shadow let out a small chuckle, and pulled the laughing man to his feet again.

"Are you ready!" shouted the Commander, who had wisely decided to sit on a parked car's bonnet near the finish line. Eggman's long spindly arms raised up, and with a quick wave of his hand confirmed this was the case.

"One!"

They both readied up again.

"Two!"

"Doctor." said Shadow.

"Yes?"

"Good luck."

"Three!"

The gun went off.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On top of a building in Spagonia, stood a figure. This building was unique in many ways, and it's uniqueness was chosen as the figure's reasoning for going up there.

The building had long winding towers, which had gone out of fashion almost one-hundred years ago, favouring more the matter-transportation that had been made popular by a Dr. Julian Kintobor in the 22nd century. A genius of a man, his cost-effective plan made teleportation a reality for every small business, meaning it was no longer a luxury of the elite. Of course, he died a rich and happy man, if memory served, somewhere in Empire City, surrounded by exotic food and equally exotic women.

Notably, the building also stored books, actual books made out of paper, a rarity in a world where you could just download the information to your brain. Thousands upon thousands of books, in a dusty and cobweb covered catacomb of literature and information.

While old architecture and the preservation of information interested the figure, the most important reason he chose this lone building to stand on, the most defining feature, the key aspect was that it was currently the only one not engulfed in flames.

Wasn't a choice really, more of a lack of options.

The silver hedgehog looked once more at the ruined city, roaring as the flames carried on higher and spread throughout the buildings, and then resumed headbutting the wall.

It wasn't fair, thought Silver, after a small indent had been made in the plaster. He had been so sure this time he could leave the past as it was, that everything had worked out fine, that he could see the city back to it's restored state. As a large piece of rubble fell next to him, it was evident that it wasn't the case.

The problem with being a time traveller really lay with whoever came before. Silver, to his knowledge, was one of the only few left, but the past "corrections" that had been undertaken by time-travellers before himself had made things worse, and it was up to Silver to try and rectify them. The only saving grace was the library that he stood on. The plethora of knowledge wasn't just from the timeline he was currently in, but also from every timeline that had currently been created. A friend he met on his travels had blessed it with some sort of sceptre, which had frozen the place not only in time, but throughout time. In every universe this library stood tall. Well, as tall as circumstances would allow.

The library would always be constructed sometime in the 22nd century, and would always somehow have the same books in it that came with it before, and also add the new history and literature of the new world. Whether it lasted to Silver's time was another story, and was a massive pain in the arse whenever giant floods laid the city to rest.

Currently, Silver had about two hours before the library completely succumbed to the fire, by his estimate, although the HexAeco Energy Power Plant located about two blocks away might cause a fuss if poked by the flames. Worst case scenario gave him forty-five minutes.

He opened the roof door, digging through some of the repeated volumes that had strewn themselves across the stairs. The problem was that every new timeline he'd create, inadvertently or not, the collection grew, not changed, creating a mass of collected anthologies, biographies, history books that detailed almost every way the world got into the state it was in.

This did also mean that if a flame so much as licked the building, the place would set ablaze in an inferno. Shuddering, Silver got to work.

It took him twenty minutes, his shoulders aching as he lifted the last large anthology out of the way, but he finally found the pile of books he was looking for, a large collection of historical documents, detailing the past 100 years. The hard part again was ascertaining which of these pertained to his specific future. He had possibly twenty minutes to find out, so he started from the top of the pile.

Silver skimmed through the book, mouthing the words as he flicked through pages, trying to find anything that looked like it related to the city he was in. Luckily, all the books in this pile were about this place, but there were always small details that -

He stood up and rushed to the window, noting the similarities in the book and from what he could view. It took him a while, but he got the conclusion he needed. The book's spine ripped open as it got flung across the room, and the perpetrator picked up another book, cursing under his breath.

Ten minutes later, he sat back among the strewn and shredded pages that lay around him. He didn't have the time for this, he could feel the heat from outside getting closer and closer as every second went on, the fire darting and dashing across the alleyways, getting closer to his position with every passing second.

Standing up, he kicked and screamed at the remainders of the books. It was no use attempting to read anything else, he could see the books starting to crumple at the edges from the fiery haze that was slowly entering the library via the windows. He'd have to go back somewhere between Sonic's timeline and his, which presented it's own problems.

Before he could think of when, the ceiling caved in, causing a literature landslide, bringing alongside rubble and debris.

Coughing, he dug himself out of the heap. Choking on some plaster, he saw a gigantic mech launching back for another swing at the building.

Silver shot himself forward using his telekinesis to float in front of the mech's face, trying to ignore the fire that burned around him.

"Hey! Robot!" shouted Silver through his cupped hands.

The gigantic mech stopped, rotating slowly so that Silver had his full attention.

"[++Unidentified intruder++]"

Silver eased the wrinkles from his forehead. He didn't have time for this.

"Ok, look, we'll go through the quick version. You didn't expect me to be here, there should have been no survivors, you must report this to your boss right away, and your boss..." he gestured to the robot to fill in the answer.

All he needed was the name, a name he could go on. The robot was a common feature of many realities, and throughout these timelines, it was always a good clue on what he needed to know. However, unless the timeline had been altered in some way, he was going to get -

"[++We didn't expect anyone here.++]"

"Oh come on!"

"[++There wasn't supposed to be any survivors++]"

"Oi, robot."

The mech gave him a steely look as it regarded him up and down.

"Please, look, I'm in a bit of a rush, and I don't need you to this whole shebang every time we meet. Can you just tell me who your boss is?"

The mech stared at the floating hedgehog, it's generators whirring in the background, the whirr of mechanical output going throughout its system echoing off the walls of the destroyed wreckage.

"[++I have to report this to my boss.++]"

The robot slowly started to walk away, leaving Silver to burn bright green in incandescent anger. He wasn't going to have any of this shit, not today, not this time.

He launched after the gigantic beast, picking up some debris on the way, and threw it with all his might at its head. Instantly the robot swung his arm back, knocking Silver across several blocks of the city.

Silver's head exploded with pain as it smashed into a telegraph pole, his now foetal body rolling into the middle of a road, illuminated by the burning buildings either side of him. With blurred and shaky vision, he stared into a hazy mangle of glass exploding in a flurry of fire. The mech had arrived, storming along the street as fast as it's motors would go.

He should have seen this coming, but losing his temper there made him drop his guard. Of course the damn thing would retaliate.

Well, at least he got its attention, he thought, as he feebly tried crawling away from the oncoming steel monster. The gigantic mech's hand smashed into him once more, knocking the wind out of Silver's lungs.

Wheezing, his vision started to come back. The gigantic mech's face was staring at him, as it's hand held Silver in an iron tight grip. Two gigantic circular eyes, a jutted out fire extension which also served as a nose for it's face, and from what Silver could make out, three gigantic pronged extensions from either side of it. Almost like a Nega invention, but it didn't seem to have his signature style -

Silver braced as the mech's hand shoved him through a building, causing rock and plaster to bounce off his body, every hit making him lose a bit more consciousness.

"[++You will tell me who you are++]" the echoing iron voice rang out across Silver's skull.

"What's it to you?" coughed out Silver weakly.

"[++The Fang Dynasty wants to know immediately.++]"

Realisation dawned upon the hedgehog, and he leant his fact down in exhaustion.

"Are you kidding me?"

"[++I do not joke.++]"

Silver looked up into the mech's face, smiling weakly.

"No, look, you don't understand." He managed to wrestle his arms out from the robot's grip, which obviously surprised the mech, who gripped tighter on Silver's waist. "See, last time I came back, this place was underwater, and you were there, right?"

"[++I was?++]"

"Yeah, but you had squid tentacles and stuff."

"[++That information is not present in my memory banks nor in any of my directories.++]"

"Well, no, it wouldn't be. See, that was a different time, but I went back and changed it, see? But you were owned by someone else in that timeline."

"[++Who?++]"

"Some bird guys if I remember correctly, wanted to bring some ancient city off the ground."

"[++Why would I be underwater?++]"

"What?"

"[++Birds fly, why would I be a water robot? Wouldn't my skills be best used for flying in that regard?++]"

Silver thought about this.

"Well, yeah, I suppose so. I didn't stop and ask them."

"[++Did you defeat them? What became of me?++]"

"I actually didn't stay and find out." admitted Silver, shrugging his now free arms. "I just jumped back to the past as soon as I could."

"[++So I didn't win?++]"

"Well, you didn't lose, I ran off."

The robot processed this information.

"And then, the time before that, you were owned by the Fang Dynasty again, which means I've just refucked something I previously unfucked. Which y'know, is just dandy."

"[++Am I always owned by someone?++]"

Silver held his tongue. Although it was a metallic monotone voice, he could feel the weight behind that question. AI's were basically alive due to some fantastic advancements over the past 200 years, and he assumed it was the case in this timeline too. They were still property, but they could still feel, could still dream.

"No." lied Silver.

Amongst the roaring flames of the city, the robot stood silently for some time.

"[++Will you be going back this time?++]"

Silver finally managed to get his legs free, which was probably helped by the robots grip loosening over the conversation. He dusted himself off, and looked into the robots face, which made no attempt to recapture the time travelling hedgehog.

"As soon as I can, yeah."

"[++What will become of me?++]"

Silver shrugged.

"I don't know. However, there's a theory, which you'd know about if you didn't crush that library over there." Silver said to the mech, which shrugged it's huge metallic arms in a long drawn out way. "Each new universe a time traveller makes continues on in it's own timeline. I can't tell you if it's true, but it's possible that I go back, and you're still here."

"[++Can I stop you?++]"

"You could try."

Silver was astonished, but he could actually hear the gears whirring around inside the robots head.

"[++I hope you fix what you mean to.++]"

Relieved, Silver smiled back.

"Oi, robot."

The robot paused.

"Do your own thing, alright?"

The mech stood there watching him in the flames for some time before turning away and walking off into the smoke.

If that theory was true, it's possible this timeline might have a chance, thought Silver, sitting down on a nearby building. Who knows, maybe this robot could topple the Dynasty. Free the mobians from cities, stand up for itself.

It was an unlikely chance however. It was miraculous in this timeline it had actually let him go free, last timeline he had been in it had been a long drawn out fight to get the information from the thing. But this proved if anything that it had its own AI, most probably not owned by Fang originally. And considering the amount of different leaders left in whatever power vacuum the past had left had the same robot, it was a certain chance this robot was the same thing rebuilt by whoever found it time after time, it's original creator unkown.

Unfortunately, finding out would be pointless. The original problem to keep causing this future lay somewhere in Sonic's timeline. Finding out and stopping this robot sometime in the decades between would be rather fruitless if something in Sonic's time went and did all his hard work.

Silver sat back watching the mech power his way through some of the buildings, rubble and glass shattering around it. This time though it seemed more like they were just in his way rather than any intended malice.

So what now? The Fang dynasty? He wasn't even sure how that kept happening. From all accounts all he could tell from Fang was that he was some sort of leader of a two-bit gang of hoodlums that hadn't been seen for some time, at least according to Sonic. When he quizzed him over this once, on a friendly race through Emerald Hill (which of course, Sonic won) Sonic had laughed.

_"Those guys?" Sonic had asked, as Silver tried to catch his breath resting on a palm tree. "God, I haven't seen them since the second Death Egg. They're not exactly the brightest lads."_

_ "That's not the point," Silver had tried to explain, as Sonic started to stretch. "In that timeline, they fill the power vacuum left by whatever ends Eggman, and they wreak more havoc than he ever could."_

_ "C'mon future-boy. If I can take down Eggman, then what chance does Fang have against any of us?"_

He had held his tongue, of course. If it wasn't Fang, it was some sort of Bird Armada. Or different birds who wanted to raise Babylon. Once it was a rusted Metal Sonic, who had transformed into a dragon in front of him. Some nights he'd wake up screaming, still seeing the talons miss him by but an inch.

But all of these had the same backstory. Eggman had been defeated, Sonic was absent, and without him a new evil would rise.

Unfortunately, Silver had kind of got around in the future. Helped he had made a bit of a presence in the past too. It wasn't surprising therefore to realise how little people wanted to speak to him about the past. Being able to change the status quo, or at least, if THAT theory was the right one and each timeline was one line that changed as he went through it, being able to change the future meant they weren't going to make it easy to figure out the present. Or the past even. He'd been hanging around Sonic too much. This was the present. His present.

The same future, or at least, if you consider a living hell-hole to be the same category of future would happen. And it was because somewhere down the line, Sonic had failed.

Not just failed, he reflected. Failed hard. Not one sign of their lineage nor their impact survived these 200 years. Not one flag, not one memorial, not one bumper sticker with their names on was present this far along in time. Unfortunately, the locals were either trying to kill him or had been killed. On the whole they failed as conversational partners, let alone informatives.

Ah well. He had something to go on at least, it was the Fang lot again. Wasn't sure how, but that old ditty by his old school teacher echoed through his decisions. "_One flap of a butterfly's wings could cause a tornado on the other side of the world_." He'd remembered imagining these colossal titans capable of blowing winds through ever flap of their hawk-like wings, causing destruction among their wake, the future lucky they had all died out.

Amy and Rouge had to stop laughing to help Cream wake Silver up once he had fainted out on the picnic, Cream's loud exclamation of "Look at all the butterflies!" making Silver's face slam into the coleslaw.

Once he had the actual meaning spelled out to him, cursing his teacher, it had made sense. Silver could go back now, move a rock 5 foot to the right, and see a genuinely new future. It was hardly fair, it felt random more than anything, and only sometimes did the changes he make make any sense at all.

He sighed, pulling out his wrist-bands. A green shard lay in one, glowing green and incandescent, it's natural glow beaming out. It's what had made him stand out among other time travellers, and probably the reason he was the only one left. Whatever this shard had come from must have spewed out energy left, right and centre. It still wasn't easy, but it meant reliably getting to the correct time within a couple of days out using his own unique powers. It was much better when it was his old school, who would prep the thing for weeks before a field trip. Now he had to stand around in a blazing inferno for five minutes while he gauged the right time.

Images of the past flew back at him. Fire, fire, fire, underwater, blown up rubble-

He paused, managing to hit on some familiar green hills. Now, with some focus, he could grab the right place as well.

200 years into the past, a portal opened, and ther silver hedgehog stepped through, his back illuminated by the HexAeco plant exploding behind him. He quickly shut the portal again, the timeline now, as a result of him even stepping on this pavement, once more inaccessible. Wasn't the biggest loss really, he liked his future not destroyed, after all. Was somewhat the whole point.

Looking up, he saw where the portal had dropped him off and smiled. True, it was one house left of the place he was going, but he considered it a victory, one day he'd have the exact position.

The place to the left was out of the way. A place he went to releax and also to be left alone, the residents kept themselves to themselves and didn't ask questions, which was more than could be said for the rest of this city. He didn't hate the city's people, far from it, but how could you explain without lying? They knew he was from the future, they all wanted to know if they made it, or if the sky was blue, or for some reason, if they're great, great, great granddaughter was fine or not. They'd been laughing as they asked, as Silver tried to say he wasn't sure.

This place though, none of that. Just an out of the way pub where no-one asked many questions, where people kept themselves to themselves. Where people, by and large, let you drink in peace.

And drink he would. It had been yet another long day, the barman didn't know he was only fifteen, and he was still partially burned and beaten. A couple of drinks for the road would do him more good than bad.

He stepped into the pub, tiredly stepped a mobian and two humans arguing who had won some sort of race, sat on one of the stools and ordered a double vodka, smiling as the gruff barman thought twice about asking for I.D. Wasn't Silver's fault his species happened to look the same from about 12 to 40.

He sat back, rubbed his increasingly tired eyes until his drink came, sat back, and yawned. Just a couple of drinks, rest up tomorrow, have a proper plan for the next trip back.

What could possibly go wrong?


	2. Chapter 2

In a pub that lay far from the city centre, roughly two hours had passed. The street outside it lay bare except for some traffic cones that lay sprawled across the pavement and some puke that had been ejected with some force prior. While this was normal for most pubs in the city at this time of night, the bar itself was somewhat more lively than the usual stint it usually dragged the night out with.

Loud noises inside the pub kept grabbing a young silver hedgehog's attention, constant barrages of sound in what was normally a quiet haven for the reserved and the closeted, pounding his weary head, his aching bones vibrating at every laugh, at every crash of a table, at every smashed glass. Silver raised an eyebrow at the barman, who shrugged dismissively.

Reluctantly, he swivelled himself around using the bar as balance and hazily looked at the source of the noise.

From what he could make out, two middle-aged gentlemen were having an arm-wrestling contest, half-empty glasses petering on the edge of the table. They were dressed in formal wear, black shoes, trousers and white shirts, their suit jackets hanging on the chairs behind them both. The fatter of the two, a pale bald man with a moustache that could rival Nega's, was currently winning the bout, but Silver suspected it had something to do with the hand and knee combo that he was currently applying to the other side of the table. The other man, a much more healthy looking man with thick white hair, wasn't going down without a fight however.

While they were bouting, a hedgehog made his way to the table, carrying three more pints in his hands. To Silver's disbelief, the hedgehog used his full pints to push the empty ones on the floor to make space, the leftover dregs leaking from the cascades of glass that covered the surrounding area.

Silver looked once more again with pleading eyes at the barman, who glared back.

"Terry, a-aren't you going to do anything?"

Again, Terry shrugged.

"They asked to charge everything to their tab." said the barman. He carried on drying a glass he held in his hand, something Silver assumed he did to look busy rather than a desire to clean said glass. "That includes damages."

"But the noise..." Silver whined.

"Look, mate, the glasses cost me, what, 25p each? I've already told them I'm charging them £5 a glass. If they stay here another hour I could probably retire."

"...Do you remember when you cared about your patrons?" asked Silver, frowning.

Terry thought about this.

"Not really."

Silver sighed as Terry got out a calculator, startin to tally up the bill so far and whistling as he did so. Well, if that was the way it was going to be, Silver thought, he'd go over and speak to them himself.

With a sense of righteousness about him, he downed his pint, slamming it down hard on the bar. Terry's eyes darted towards the glass, shaking the calculator in his direction. Rolling his eyes, Silver started to make headway across the pub floor. Stepping over broken bits of glass layered around in a wonky diameter around the raucous individuals, he finally got close to them, where his dizzying vision was able to ascertain who the culprits were. The hedgehog currently paying no attention to Silver's advancement was about a metre tall, wearing red and white shoes and white gloves that covered his -

"Sonic!?"

The rounder of the men that sat at the table turned around quickly, his eyes wide behind his circle-lensed glasses. The hedgehog he had addressed gave Silver a steely look, one of disdain.

"See," started the darker white-haired man, picking up his drink, not even turning around to face him like the others had. "It's an easy mistake."

"I'm literally a different colour, how is it so hard?" complained the hedgehog. "Try again.."

Silver looked him up and down. The black fur, the white ruffled chest much like his own, the red stripes that seemed to run down the back of his h-

"Shadow!"

Shadow rolled his eyes, focusing once more on his drink.

"Haven't seen you since Nega came to your time." sighed Silver, pulling up a chair to sit with them. "Wouldn't have done it without you or Sonic."

"Nega?" asked the fat one, looking Silver up and down. "How the hell do you know that nutcase?"

"...we go way back."

"Way forward I reckon. You're a time-traveller, aren't you?"

Silver hesitated in shock. He glared at Shadow, who shrugged back innocently. Evidently, he hadn't mentioned it.

"What makes you think that?"

The man rolled his eyes and yanked Silver's arm towards him, holding his bracelet in his grasp, inspecting it.

"This isn't currently existing technology." he started, turning it in his hands this way and that. "And the material, it's … it's here on Earth, but I know we don't have a way of shaping it so finely. On top of you knowing Nega and your similar pronunciation, it wasn't a hard guess." He gave Silver his arm back. "And y'know, I'm a genius." he finished, grabbing his beer again. "What's your name, kid?"

"Silver." replied the hedgehog rather begrudgingly, holding his now free wrist in his own hands. "You know Nega?"

"I guess you could say that." the man laughed, handing over a business card to the silver hedgehog. Silver gave it the once-over. A grey card, with yellow and black hazard tape decals running alongside the borders, emblazoned with the company the man presumably worked at.

"Robotnik Corp?"

"Yeah, we sell Air Gear and the like, security robots and that kinda deal, y'know."

"That's the _only_ thing is it?" teased the other man.

"Under this name? Yes." He turned back around to Silver, who handed him back his business card. "However, you might know me better as Dr. Eggman."

Hit in the face with the train of sobriety, everything suddenly came into perfect vision. No wonder he looked so familiar. The moustache, the body type, the air of superiority. He'd heard of Nega's ancestor in this time, seen the odd picture, but he hadn't actually seen him in the flesh.

Silver stepped back, glass crunching under his feet as he readied his psychic energy. Shards and fragments started to float around him, the spiky end, or rather, the spikier end of each broken glass pointed towards the man.

"You're Dr. Eggman?"

The white-haired man shuffled his chair over to Shadow's side of the table, slowly dragging his beer over to him.

"That'd be your guy, hedgehog. Get him."

"Knock it off Abe." snapped Eggman, drunkenly pointing in the man's direction. Slowly, and carefully, he turned around to face Silver once more, raising his hands in front of him. "What's your problem then?"

"Y-you're Nega's ancestor right?"

"Unfortunately."

Silver raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"The man's insane." replied Eggman. "An egotistical madman who doesn't think before he does the shit he does."

"I wonder where he gets it from." muttered Shadow, earning the hedgehog a middle finger.

"We're not on speaking terms in any case." Eggman continued, taking another attempt at his glass, gulping heavily. "He's got it in for me for some damn reason and I have it in for him for trying to end the universe." He placed the glass down. "While I was still in it."

Silver dropped the shards, which tinkled and rang out across the room.

"So you're not an enemy?"

"Depends on who you ask." he answered, turning around to see Shadow and Abraham with their hands raised. "Don't ask these two." he finished, frowning.

"If you're against Nega, then why are you against Sonic?" Silver asked. It was something he'd been meaning to bring up and ask, but Sonic and Eggman, well. Whatever had changed the future had obviously cleared the both of them off. Minor past squabbles were hardly important reading.

"Everyone at this table has tried to kill Sonic at some point, be fair Most of Sonic's friends too. I think he's just got a punchable face."

Abraham cleared his throat and beckoned towards Silver politely. His aged but obviously merry features on his face betrayed his heterochromia eyes, which hung depression on it's walls.

"Silver, wasn't it? Look, we're drinking to..." he paused, and his features on his face matched his eyes, his whole expression sagging, aging ten years in the process. "...To a memory. Maybe some other time, yeah?"

The black suits, ties, formal wear, the heavy drinking, suddenly, it all started to make sense.

"Was it anyone I knew?" asked Silver, addressing Shadow. The black hedgehog stared into his pint intently.

"No. You… you wouldn't have known her." Shadow replied after a while.

A woman. Abraham's wife? Eggman's? Silver shook his head. Was probably better not to speculate, it wasn't his place.

"I'll go." said Silver. "I'm… I'm sorry."

Before Silver could start turning around, Shadow grabbed his bracelet, holding it with an iron grip. Abraham, Eggman and himself all looked at Shadow, who Silver realised was absolutely hammered, his head swaying, his eyes slightly red… redder than usual.

"Stay." Shadow said, bluntly.

"B-but he s-"

"Please."

The table went silent as they all took this in. Shadow wasn't … impolite as such. He referred to people by their titles after all, something not even Eggman's underlings had been able to get the hang of. But he wasn't one for saying please.

"Are you ok, Shadow?" asked Eggman with genuine concern on his chubby face, peering over his circular lenses at the black hedgehog, who was still grabbing onto Silver's arm.

"I'm fine."

Slowly, and with caution, Silver sat down with the others in awkward silence. He wasn't sure if had preferred the noise, as the atmosphere around the table lay thick on Silver's shoulders, Eggman and Abraham's eyes skirting around the area, landing everywhere that wasn't the brooding pair or their new companion. After about a minute of this, Abraham patted his pockets until he produced his lighter. He gave a quick wave to get everyone's attention, who looked as he stood up.

"Going for a smoke lads, will be back in five." he said, starting to put his jacket on.

"I could do with the fresh air actually." added Eggman, nodding to the commander as he stood up too. Holding themselves in order to stay upright as they walked, both men still horrifically drunk, they meandered to the door, glass crunching off the bottom of their soles, tables and chairs being devastated as their large frames collided into each one.

Soon, Shadow and Silver were left once more to their own selves, the pub was pretty much home to just them two, Terry having gone back into the back to presumably stack up his bills.

"So… it's a nice place this." tried Silver, looking around the place. "Got coasters and everything."

Shadow merely nodded.

"I come here because it's quiet, y'know. Nice place to reflect." added Silver. "And to drink." He nudged Shadow, who smiled faintly, looking into his still full pint. "Guess you've done some of that already."

Once more, the pair lapsed into silence. The silhouettes of the two men outside could be seen leaning on the wall, smoke dispersing from the area. He had to admit, Eggman seemed like a nice enough guy, a far cry from his own Eggman Nega who had helped to torment his own world and Blazes'.

"Silver?"

Silver jumped out of his own thoughts and focused on Shadow, who was now looking away from his pint, giving Silver his full attention.

"Yeah?"

"You come from a different time, right?"

"About two hundred years into your future." explained Silver, as he preemptively attempted to divert the next question. "I can't tell you anything about it though, it's… time travel. Knowing the future radically alters it."

"That's not what I was gonna ask."

"Oh."

"Do you ever feel… out of your time? Like you don't belong?"

Silver laughed for the first time that night, a hearty chuckle that seemed like it had been trapped below stress and anguish, behind walls of pain and tiredness that had previously been doing a stellar job broken down in an instant.

"Like, only all the time." said Silver, wiping away a tear that was starting to form around his eye. "Not even that, even when I'm in my time, it's not my time. I've got to unfuck the future so it can become the future I remember."

"What happened?"

Silver wagged his finger drunkenly.

"What did I tell you? Can't say."

"Hmph."

Silver hesitated, feeling the walls between him and Shadow rise up. He didn't mean to be rude, it was just… he had to have some rules. And his plan to fix the future relied heavily on the present not knowing, lest the future he was aiming for became unobtainable, as the present had their own visions on where to take this new future they sought.

It was a headache, to say the least.

"Why did you ask anyway?" asked Silver curiously.

Shadow grinned, wagging his finger at him.

"Can't say."

Silver rolled his eyes as Shadow laughed into his drink before continuing.

"I was kept in cryo for 50 years, Silver." Shadow paused, placing his drink down. "Three years ago, it was 1951. With… people that aren't here anymore. That I can't see anymore."

"I know the feeling."

"How do you cope?"

"Well…" started Silver, mulling the answer in his mind. "Friends help. They keep me optimistic. And that I might be able to see them again."

"You think you can get them back?"

"What?"

"The people you lost?"

Silver stole one of Eggman's drinks, one he'd left behind when he went out with the commander. Downing it as Shadow watched intently, Silver finished and gave him a weak smile.

"Here's hoping."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"A time traveller, huh?"

Eggman looked over at Abraham, who'd asked the question. Smoke whistled away from his hands from the lit cigarette he was working his way through in the cold air. Eggman sat down on a bit of broken down wall, bricks dislodging slightly under him. This pub had been here for hundreds of years, a proper old establishment. The last time anyone had done any serious maintenance on it had been roughly that many years ago, it seemed.

"There's a fair few of them about now." replied Eggman, taking in some of the cold air as Abe and the pub shifted in his view.

"I didn't even know it was possible."

"You'd be surprised at how easy it is."

"Wait, you've time travelled?"

"Not as such. But I know I will."

Abraham sat next to Eggman on the wall, the old broken stone creaking almost under their combined weight.

"How could you possibly know that?" asked Abe, offering Eggman a cigarette. He'd forgone them for years after proper research into the dangers of it, but he'd remembered being a teenager, sharing that first drag with Abe behind the back of the high-school bike shed.

"Oh what the hell, go on then."

He took his first cigarette in almost forty years. Ten seconds later, Abraham helped him up after his coughing fit, Eggman thanking him with tears in his eyes.

"Jesus Ivo."

"Shut it Abe."

Eggman took another drag, which seemed to go better than the first. He was still breathing, for one.

"So yeah" said Eggman, as he sat back once more, stretching his legs out from underneath him. "Nega, the man Silver was talking about in there. Descendant from the future. Kinda. A future. Haven't worked it out properly." He tapped the ash from his smoke on the wall, the burning embers floating onto the cracked concrete below. "He helped me take on Sonic and Blaze in a different dimension."

"Sorry, what?"

"Oh yeah, this Earth has parallel dimensions and everything. Too different though, none of that everything's the same but with blue stop lights bullshit. Either way, I snooped around his machines. The tech he's got in there..." He shrugged to Abraham, a grin on his face. "I recognise my own work y'know. Sure, some of it doesn't make sense, but there's pipes and valves in there with my signature on."

"And you know how it works?"

"Working on it. Didn't get the chance to look at his machine when he came to our present due to … issues." he muttered, trying to ignore the fact Nega caught him out twice. "But I've got pictures of his parallel machine. I think the man nixed some wiring up. Give me a couple of years and I think I'll have broken through with it."

Abraham whistled through the cold night's breeze.

"Ivo, these … breakthroughs. They're unprecedented. I'm not going to push you but imagine what you could do if we put your work to good use."

Eggman instinctively closed his fist. As his hand burned as the still glowing embers lay on his glove, he shook it off and gave his old friend a piercing look.

"We've gone over this."

"I know but-"

"How? How the hell could I work under that name? How the hell can _you_ work under that name?"

Abraham hesitated. He was obviously picking his words carefully, and for once, Eggman was fine with that. Maybe it was the beer, the day, the realisation he never actually had the answer, but he… he wasn't even angry this time. He just wanted to know.

"Ivo. When… when we found out, all those years ago. You left, you trashed the place. You nearly killed someone with that fire you set." he sighed, looking away from Eggman's face. This was obviously a tough subject for him, his breathing had become a lot more dense than before, his wrinkles seemed to grow, aging him nearly 20 years, he looked like a corpse. "You asked me to join you, do you remember?"

Of course he remembered, Abraham's answer had caused him to go on a month long pub crawl around Station Square, leading to a 12 hour surgery as he faced liver failure.

"Admittedly, I was wrong about a couple of things. When I was little, I thought Shadow had killed everyone. When the GUN files leaked, I still thought Maria… my family… I still thought that they'd got caught up in the crossfire."

"What about 2001? 2005 even?"

"Oh christ."

"You stayed with them, seeing my grandfather shot publicly broadcasted to the earth?."

"I thought he was crazy, Ivo! He threatened to pile-drive a Space Station into the earth with that lizard! That and his grandson blew up the moon only two hours before."

They both looked up at the mess of rock that was still hanging up in space. The crater was facing towards them as it always did. Eggman tried to hide a smile behind his hand as Abraham went on.

"The 2005 leaks… the whole Black Arms situation, well… I was already the chief by then, wasn't I?"

"So?"

"I found the people responsible. I tracked down old names and brought them in for questioning, for trials. I redirected what it actually was Gun did. I recruited Shadow even. We now give to the community rather than abuse our power."

Eggman nodded. He had known about some of this, since 2005 specifically Abraham had actually made significant changes to the force. The name of the person directly responsible seemed to be stuck behind many layers of encryption that Eggman could not for the life of him work out, something he'd been livid about. But everything else, the salaries, the outreach programs they had started, the teaching kids robotics fund which Eggman had actually donated money to anonymously, all under Abe's rule.

"It's just… that name. That legacy. The money for these things is built on your family's deaths, Abe."

"The general public doesn't know." replied Abraham. "Broadcasted across the entire world and no-one seems to remember. I think they got caught up in the panic of Shadow to be quite honest. In terms of marketing, it does us wonders. And with more money, well, we can do more good."

"I suppose."

"Can't change what happened, Ivo. To Maria, to my family. Your grandfather even. May as well make the best of it."

Abraham lit yet another cigarette, using his hand to stop the icy cold breeze from snuffing out his light. He nodded once more to Eggman, who accepted another from the man.

"So what do you say?"

"Huh?" questioned Eggman, snapping his attention away from lighting his own.

"You want to join GUN?"

"Abe..."

"Look, you don't have to join like, officially. Probably for the best, your name isn't exactly trusted after all. But a consultant?"

Eggman tossed the idea around in his head.

"Would I get paid?" he asked. Abraham laughed, ash falling from his shaking cigarette.

"More than most, I think. Consultants get paid stupid amounts of money."

"Would you stop me from building my theme-park?" Eggman asked.

"If you do it legally this time, I wouldn't stop you."

"...would you still let me kill Sonic?"

"That's murder."

"Ah."

Abraham stood up, dusting his suit off. When he was done, he offered Eggman a hand, who graciously accepted it, as he found his motor skills were shot.

"I'll pretend you didn't ask that." chuckled Abraham, who looked around once more at the street, smirking at the traffic cones Eggman had laid out before. "For Rob's sake though, I'd let you try."

"Hold on to that offer then, I'll think about it."

"..really?"

"Honestly Abe, I'm running out of ways to kill that blue bastard. Not to say I won't try, of course, but I could do with a hobby on the side."

Abraham laughed, opening the door to the pub.

"Back to Shadow and future boy then."

"The future Abe. Time-travel. Y'know, I've got a couple of questions about that."

"I can imagine."

They both carried on talking as they walked back into the bar, leaving only the brisk air, some traffic cones, and the remaining embers that cooled down in the night, slowly ebbing away as the breeze eroded it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Birds whistled around in the air, breaking the dawn of the new day, the warm glow swathing over Sonic's body as he lazily opened an eye to view the scene. A secluded beach off the coast of Soleanna lay in waiting, it's brown docks (of which Sonic had fallen asleep under) creaked, settling into the new morning.

He stretched, his hands making an indent in the rich sand that lay around him. The morning sun glistened off the water in front of him, silhouettes of people walking, couples out and about, mobians and humans alike. A metal detector halfway down the beach was beeping along a couple of hundred feet away, Sonic's ears bristling with each new ding of the machine.

No-one paid him much attention. He was famous world-wide, of course, but the locals here treated him more like an outsider. He'd never saved their city before, which he supposed was fair. It suited him better in any case. No-one rolled out any carpets for him, no-one was trying to attack him. He was a foreigner for the most part.

There was someone more famous here in any case. It was odd, judging by the angle of the sun he should be out running about now, with an army of people behind him cheering him on. Sonicman was this town's hero, so much so that people thought Sonic had copied him. He'd met the guy after the initial confusion, they'd had a race and everything. Sonicman, the people's hero, had won of course.

Amy had praised him for doing this for the man, it had obviously meant a lot to him and to the Soleannans, who had been humble winners in the circumstances. Sonic had brushed off the praise, but it worried him that he hadn't had to slow down much. For a human, the guy was genuinely quite fast. They met up from time to time now, talking about adventures. Sonicman always had something interesting going no. If there was ever a major crisis, Sonic genuinely believed he'd be able to hold it off.

Sonic picked himself off from the sand, shaking some of out his ears. He must have woken up late. Ah well, it happened. He casually strolled down the beach, nodding his head to anyone who passed by. Again, he wasn't famous around here, apart from a passing resemblance to Sonic man, so no-one made a big deal. One day he'd probably retire here and open up a shop or something. Some sort of ice-cream shop. Everyone expected it to be a chilli-dog stand but Sonic sucked at making them himself. For a few cities he saved, every now and again, he'd forgo the usual rejection of any gratitude and accept payments in free chilli-dogs for life, it saved time on his end and it was always appreciated more.

He made his way back up the docks, the grey city alive with people. He walked his way through the crowds. It hurt, not being able to run as he liked. But there were a lot of people and he didn't have the goodwill to do that, not like in Station Square, where people said it was good luck if Sonic blew your umbrella away running through the wet. Sonic didn't personally see how this was so, but maybe it was a human thing.

The shop he was aiming for came into view, a chilli-dog vendor. Knuckles would be furious if he found out he was getting one this early in the morning. For someone who had spent his entire life in solitude until a while ago, he was somehow super knowledgeable on nutrition. In Knuckles's mind, grapes were your breakfast, and anything you could cook from nature and a small campsite fire was everything you needed. Life was too short to cook, and the calories from one of these was just the thing to get you going in the morning.

He finally got to the front of the queue, where his favourite rotund man with a beard stepped back to the cash register.

"Hey, Antonio!" said Sonic chirpily. "The usual, please."

"What?"

"C'mon man, I'm starving."

Antonio looked him up and down, scrutinising Sonic's body. Sonic stepped back, confused.

"The breakfast special is an egg sandwich, kid." he responded after a while, starting to take some buns out of a bag he held in front of him. "It's 2 dollars, but 50 cents more will get you brown sauce on it."

Sonic's brain stalled. He looked around in the queue, expecting to see a smirk, some tell-tale sign of a prank. This didn't come.

"No, dude, chilli-dogs." Sonic explained, frowning. "1 dollar fifty for a chilli-dog."

"Chilli-dogs?"

"You sold them less than a month ago, don't do this to me man, this isn't funny."

Antonio folded his arms, spatula sticking out of his arm as he gave Sonic an unamused look.

"Mate, this has been a sandwich and burger shop since 1987." he said, leaning forward to meet Sonic's eyes. "I think you've got us confused with someone else."

Looking around, Sonic checked over the city. It was the same city, it was the same place Antonio had set up, it was the same man. Wait, thought Sonic, it was the same man-

"Antonio!" shouted Sonic, taking the man aback "In 1978 you went to have your first kiss with your wife, but you tripped and accidentally kissed the bouncer, and that's why you walk with a limp, because he beat the shit out of you!"

The shop went silent, apart from a couple of sniggers and attempts at muffled laughter. Antonio's face went crimson, his veins on his head giving off the same consistency as some of the raw patties he had grilling behind him.

"That man is the same man I'm speaking to now!" carried on Sonic, clueless to the queue backing away slightly behind him. "And you sold me a chilli-dog less than..." he stuttered as the heavy-set gentlemen - who Sonic had never seen from beyond the vendor before - stepped out into the customer area, where Sonic had realised must have been sitting down the entire time. As the 7 foot beast walked up to him, he gulped in fear. "... less than a month ago."

Antonio coughed.

"See, I told you I knew-"

Sonic's face collided with a dumpster 20 feet away over the road. Bystanders looked on in horror as Sonic wearily tried to collect his shattered brain cells going nineteen to the dozen inside his head, at the same time, wincing at the slammed door from Antonio's shop.

Getting his breath back, Sonic attempted to stand up, his knees and arms failing him. What the hell was going on? He knew Antonio well, he was invited to their renewal of vows three years ago. And more importantly, one of the best chilli-dog cooks in the world. What was this burger and sandwich shit?

"Are you ok man?" came a voice from behind him, an adult male by the sound of it. His vision was still shaken up, so Sonic tried to see him through a haze.

"God no." replied Sonic. "Antonio… I don't know what happened."

"You must have pissed him off something fierce, he's usually quite nice." said the guy, putting what looked like his shopping on the floor as he looked into Sonic's eyes. "You need some help up man?"

"No… I'm good, just..."

Wait. That voice, it sounded familiar. He searched his boggled mind, trying to remember where. Soleannan, helpful, an air of confidence about h-

"Sonicman!"

The guy raised an eyebrow.

"What did you say?"

"You're Sonicman!" Sonic yelled, managing to stand up finally. He looked at the guy and sure enough, the red shoes, the blue jeans, his white shirt with a logo on it. But… but not his helmet. He gasped.

"I never realised you had black hair man!" shouted Sonic, his confusion stalled for a short while. Finally, something definite about today. "I knew you had to take off your helmet from time to time, I knew you couldn't just sit in it all day! Well, shopping in private would be difficult for sure, so I guess that makes sense. How the hell are you?"

"H-hey, I think you hit your head too hard, kid." smiled Sonicman, picking up his shopping again. "Maybe you should wear that helmet you were talking about. And y'know, avoid pissing off Antonio? He's a nice guy once you get to know him."

"But Sonicman, I do know him, I've known him for y-"

He stopped, something eating away at the back of his mind. Sonicman would know this, surely. Out of anyone here, Sonicman knew him best, christ, it was the reason he was who he was. He was him! Well, not him but … Sonic…

He shook his head, trying to make sense out of his thoughts.

"You..." Sonic started hesitantly, afraid of the answer. "You know who I am right?"

"Never had the pleasure." smiled the guy apologetically. "I think you've got me confused for some cool sounding guy though. I don't think he's from around here though, I know everyone."

"But your shirt!" Sonic yelled at the man, grabbing the lapel. "This here, this logo on your shirt, that's me goddamnit! I don't care what joke this is, or if you've hit your head but you can't fake this out of the blue!"

The guy pulled his shirt away from the very agitated Sonic. Pushing Sonic away, not unkindly, but more cautiously, he placed both his hands on the hedgehog's shoulders.

"Look, mate, unless you're Sketch Turner, you are not the guy on my shirt."

"Sketch Turner!?"

"Yeah, the man behind Comix Zone. Y'know, Alicia Cyan and Mortus? He revolutionised comics."

"What?"

The man gave Sonic a pitying stare as Sonic tried to make sense of any of this. The guy was correct though, some hippy with long golden hair looked back at him where Sonic's face should be.

"Let's get you checked in at the hospital, ok?"

"O-ok." replied Sonic reluctantly. Nothing felt right. None of this seemed real. Soleanna was for sure, not exactly ecstatic fans but he was known. And even if they forgot about him, Sonicman? This man here was Sonicman, Sonic recognised it in his walk, his speech, his caring nature. Sonic rattled through scenarios in his head. Eggman had used mind control before, but he wasn't subtle, there'd have been a 50 foot statue of him in town or something, or everyone would have tried to kill him, something a bit more imaginative. This didn't seem like him at all. None of his other enemies had that power, and they tended to make themselves known in any case. An alien threat could have done something, but as far as Sonic was aware, that included the Black Arms only, and they were even less subtle than Eggman himself.

Maybe he was ill. Hallucinating possibly? Was he in Station Square accosting some poor people, scared of their wits of Sonic talking to thin air? Maybe Sonicman here was just a friendly bystander who was trying to help Sonic?

As Sonic was being led down the road by Sonicman, who kept asking if he was ok, a long droning sound crept into audio range, dim at first, but then growing louder and louder. Sonic looked around in the air wildly, trying to find out where this was coming from.

A wooden vehicle made out of what looked liked boards and many pieces of elastic bands stuck together was being flown by Tails, Amy hanging on for dear life on to the wings, screaming his name.

"Ah. Sonicman, I'm hallucinating." he said, happily. At least they'd ascertained that. This put Sonic in a good mood, as he carried on walking forward, now happy he had a reason for feeling like he did. He got about 4 yards before he was yanked back, Sonicman not having moved.

"I don't… that's not my name, dude, but I can see that too. Fox and a hedgehog piloting something straight out of McGyver."

"Oh." said Sonic weakly, watching Amy and Tails lose control of the plane over the beach. "Ok then."

He wasn't even phased as they hit the beach. They seemed alright, but Sonic couldn't guess anything anymore. Maybe he got hit in the head by a loose board this morning, ended up in a coma. It would explain a lot.

The sound of the city moving on by filled the space for a short while, watching as the two clambered out of the wreckage, Tails using his two tails to fly Amy out of the rubble. That had never made sense. Sonic chuckled to himself. Maybe he got hit in the head by Eggman's wrecking ball all those years ago and South Island's best doctors couldn't wake him up out of this. Tails and Amy were nothing more than figments of his imagination. Now, he thought, looking back at his life, might be a reasonable assessment. He was still smiling when Tails and Amy reached him, giving the two a short wave.

"Sonic!" yelled Amy, giving him a hug, gripping tightly with all her might. After a short while, she let go and looked him up and down. "Why are you so happy, and relaxed, do you have any idea what's been going on?"

"You're both hallucinations. I'm in a hospital somewhere." he explained faintly while staring into the ocean front. "This man here's going to take me back there."

"Of course I am, hedgehog. Tucked back into a nice warm bed with your friends and family looking after you." laughed Sonicman, before addressing Amy and Tails with a much more serious expression on his face. "Your friend, Sonic is it? He just got thrown into a wall, has me confused for someone else entirely."

Tails looked up from running something on his tablet, recognising the man instantly.

"Sonicman!"

The guy took a deep breath.

"Look, if this is a joke, it's not funny, I think your friend is seriously hurt."

Amy stepped between the two, laughing, standing on Tails's foot.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you look like one of our friends back in Empire City, you could be twins!" she laughed, twirling her hammer absent-mindedly. "Probably why these two got you confused." she said, stamping on Tail's foot again.

"R-right." added Tails, trying not to yell out in pain. "Silly me."

"Ok then." said the man slowly, as it trying to gauge what was going on. He shook his head after a while, obviously deciding not to put too much thought into it. "Look, I'll leave your friend with you, he'll feel safer with someone he knows. Have you two been to Soleanna before?"

"Once or twice." replied Amy, grabbing Sonic's hand.

"Ok, nearest hospital is opposite the Duchess's castle. Can't miss it. There's some guards nearby that should be able to help you out." The man knelt down once more, giving Sonic a smile. "Your friends are going to take care of you now. I'll pop into the hospital tomorrow, we can have a chat, ok?"

"Sounds good boss." said Sonic, laughing as he held out a thumb in his direction. The man ruffled Sonic's hair for a short while before walking off, giving them a wave as he walked around the corner. Amy and Tails both waited in silence for a minute, watching Sonic sway from side to side. After it was apparent no-one else was in the street, they rushed Sonic down into an alley.

"This isn't the hospital..." mumbled Sonic, his legs dragging behind him. Tails and Amy shared worried glances.

"What happened to you?" asked Tails, giving Sonic a scan with his tablet.

"This is our Sonic, isn't it?" Amy inquired. "Well, you know what I mean."

"Looks like it." said Tails, showing the scan to Amy, the screen facing away from Sonic. "Has our same energy readings and everything. From what I can tell, he's genuinely hit his head, as well as suffered some shock."

Amy ran her hand over Sonic's head, feeling around for-.

Immense pain shot through Sonic's skull, searing red ran past his sight as tears started to form in his eyes.

"Sonicman said you were taking me back to the hospital, what the hell!?" screamed Sonic, crouching down near some empty boxes. "You don't slap coma patients!"

"Oh for fucks sa-"

Sonic didn't have time to react as the slap lifted him up from the floor, Amy's hand imprint glowing off his face, he could actually feel the imprint off of heat alone. Landing hard on his stomach, he tried to get his breath back.

"I'm sorry Sonic!" yelled Amy, who had come back to help him up. Tails walked over and sat down next to him, putting his hand on Sonic's shoulders. "This isn't a dream, or a hallucination, this is real."

Sonic's eyes started to focus properly on the duo. Both of them had pained expressions on their faces, both of their eyes rubbed red from crying previously. The slap had woken him up slightly, and had the added benefit of taking the pain away from the top of this head. Rubbing his cheek, he got some thoughts in order.

"You know who I am?"

"Yes, Sonic. You know who we are, right?"

He held his tongue, the sarcastic remark he was about to come out with halted in its tracks. They genuinely looked like they wanted an honest answer.

"Miles Prower, or Tails for short. Best friend, sidekick, hero etc."

Tails smiled, as Amy held Sonic's hands in her own.

"Any Amy Rose… friend."

Amy frowned.

"I'm still holding my hammer, you git."

Sonic laughed weakly.

"Amy Rose, most dependable friend and someone I care about. Will that do?" he asked Amy, who thought this over.

"It'll do." She stood up, holding out a hand to help Sonic up. "For now anyway."

"I take it you don't know what's happened?" asked Tails, turning his tablet off and putting it in a small bag he had salvaged from the plane.

"No-one knows who I am."

"Nor us two."

"What about the others?"

Amy started shaking, as Tails came over to comfort her.

"I was staying at Vanilla's and when I woke up… she threw me out." Amy started to cry, tears running down her face in vast amounts. "Her and Cream looked so scared, Sonic. Of me! They didn't know who I was!"

Sonic gave her a long hug. It was something he tried to avoid for the most part, Amy had a habit of reading any affection of his as a marriage proposal, but he could tell this had obviously devastated the girl.

"We'll find out what's happening. It's got to be Eggman somehow."

"I doubt it." Tails added, tightening the straps on his bag once more.

"What makes you so sure?" replied Sonic, raising his head from Amy's to look at Tails. "Something on this scale, who else could it be?"

Tails pointed his finger upwards. Slowly Sonic's eyes followed the direction.

"You really think Eggman would be ok with that?"

Through the grey stone buildings that littered this alleyway, the chimneys and the washing lines that had been laid out to soak up what little sun came through here, a massive Shadow suddenly enveloped them. As the sun's rays started to dim as the behemoth above them prevented the glare, a massive G.U.N. logo came into view.

The three watched in silent horror as the blimp (as it turned out to be) carried on its way over the city, over the castle and slowly, beyond the cliffs that surrounded the area.

"It's like the 60th one we've seen today. Sonic, they're everywhere. Covering the globe in fact. We can't get a hold of anyone, none of the phones are connected on my tablet anymore. All overnight."

"What the hell happened?" Sonic whispered, aimed at no-one in particular, but more to the world, in a vain attempt to garner any clarity on the matter. In the silent loneliness of this alleyway, on an Earth that seemed to have forgotten about the trio, they awaited an answer which didn't come.


End file.
